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“Your sins have separated you and God and your sins have hidden His face from you.” Isa 59. Great Gulf—just as real as Luke 16.

No mortal man or woman can forgive sins. Forgiveness from the Savior. Mountain.

No priest—pope—minister or evangelist, fulltime worker can forgive sins.

No church—Catholic—Protestant—Lutheran—Presbyterian—Methodist—Anglican—Baptist—Pentecostal—Brethren—can forgive sin. They may say they can, but Scripturally they can’t. “Not by Works.” Martin Luther. “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” Luke 5. One mediator. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. I John 1:7, Steve. Eph 1:7. “What can wash away my sin?” Forgiveness and pardon. When? “Neither is there salvation in any other.” Acts 4:12 “There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Not Muhammad, Confucius, Buddha, the Pope, but Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son.

“You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matt 1:21

“He came to give His life as a ransom for many.” Matt 20:28

“He came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 10:10

Watch the Lord, seeking and saving in Luke 15.

The Lost Sheep, the Seeking Shepherd. In this part of the parable it is the Son who is seeking the sinner. Describe some of the sufferings He endured. See Page “A.” “None of the ransomed ever knew, how deep were the waters crossed,” etc.

The lost silver.

The woman in the parable had ten pieces of silver. She lost one piece—she lit a lamp—and looked for it until she found it.

The women here would depict the Church/Bride as the agent of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit through the Church is seeking the lost.

The Son and the Spirit loves the sinner.

The lost coin had the image of the king stamped on it. “There is none righteous, no not one.”

Every sinner has the image of God stamped on them, they are precious and valuable to God.

Because you are valuable to God, the Spirit (goodness and mercy) is seeking you this morning to bring you to Jesus. “Boness Boy.” That time when you were very sick, the Spirit through Mom or Dad sought you.

In Sunday School, He sought you through your teacher. In the special meetings, He almost found you.

Now, once again, through the Church and His servant, the Spirit is seeking, searching for you. Will He find you this morning?

Describe briefly the context. The coming home. The waiting Father scanning the horizon looking for His wayward son. The effects upon the Father—Mother after P.O.W. experience. When he saw him coming—a great way off—his love overflowed and he ran and embraced him and kissed him and forgave him.

This morning the Father is bending over the bulwarks of heaven. He is scanning the horizon. At this moment He is focusing on Shirley Heights—He is looking at you, dear sinner friend.

Any movement from you towards Him, He will shower His love on you, embrace you in the loving arms, and plant the kiss of forgiveness on your forehead.

He will forgive your sins—all of them. He will deliver you from the kingdom of Satan. He will bring you into His family and make you His child. Word to the backslider-“Coming home.”

Rev. 22:17

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘come.’” Let he that heareth come. Let him that is thirsty come. And whosoever will let him come and take freely of the water of life. Seek the Lord while He may be found. “My Spirit shall not always strive with man.”

In the year 1842 a young Scottish lad stepped ashore in Canada. Although still in his early twenties, he was a drunkard. Canada did not help his problem; he got mixed up with the wrong crowd, and like the prodigal he spent his all in riotous living. One wintry morning, after a drinking carousal, he was found dead by the roadside. He was buried in Fergus, Ontario.

His parents and friends had despaired of him, but his younger sister loved the black sheep of the family.

The thought burned itself into her mind that somehow during his dying hours her brother had come to Jesus, and been saved.

This conviction shaped itself into an immortal hymn. There were ninety and nine that safely lay, in the shelter of the fold. Etc.

She locked the unpublished poem in her desk, and after her death in 1869 it somehow found its way into a Glasgow newspaper in 1874. Moody and Sankey were in Scotland at this time, and while reading the newspaper Sankey saw the poem, cut it out and placed it in his musical scrapbook.

That same night Mr. Moody preached a sermon on the Good Shepherd, in Edinburgh, at the close of which he took out his little newspaper clip, put it on the organ and sang the words to the tune to which it is still sung.

The Scottish audience was moved; Mr. Moody was deeply stirred. So this great Gospel hymn was launched into the world.

From then until now, many a lost sheep has been brought back to the fold through the message it contains.

The Lord’s Search For The Lost Sheep

In the first part of the parable it is the Shepherd who is seeking the lost sheep.

His search brought Him from the ivory palaces into a world of woe. It brought Him down to Bethlehem, His search included His three years of public ministry, and His rejection, suffering, and death.

Forgiveness for the Penitent

A Russian prince was permitted by Napoleon to bring a pardon to one convict in a French prison. Every person he interviewed professed to be innocent and said he was unjustly punished. At last he found one who with sorrow confessed his guilt and admitted that he deserved to be punished. To this man the Russian prince said, “I have brought you a pardon. In the name of the Emperor Napoleon I pronounce you a free man.”